Ladies - there have been a lot of questions of late er- allowing your children to use public bathrooms with/without supervision. They got me thinking, how do I handle going to a public bathroom myself, with toddler in tow, assuming I am traveling solo? DS is 13 months old, walking, climbing, and has his hands/ mouth on everything. I work full time, so this hasn't been an issue as yet. If I were to need to use the bathroom in a public place, do I put him in the stroller for safekeeping? Do I hold onto him as best I can while I take care of my needs?
Mind you, we live in NYC where space is at a premium, and bathroom stalls are barely big enough for their intended purpose, and certainly can't accommodate a stroller.
Any advice is appreciated.
I learned to do everything one handed and used the other to firmly press the child against the wall. Mine if you let go of them they could be in another country before I could wipe my backside.
Ugh - I've had to have my baby in a stroller and use the bathroom with the door open and the stroller 1/3 of the way in. It blocked anyone from viewing me and I'd usually wait for the last stall against the wall to avoid onlookers. When you gotta go, you gotta go!
When I was without a stroller, it helped to let her stand and say something to occupy her or let her have something to hold. It's inevitable though that she would touch the damn sanitary pad garbage box. So I would just wash her hands really well afterwards.
Oh - and you KNOW that men design bathroom and put the trash box so low down!!
after kids, I lost all sense of modesty. I have peed with the door open in a public stall when 1. no room, 2. handicap not available or 3. sporting event and had to use a porta potty.
I've travelled all over with my son. ANY place with a handicap stall... you use that one. Any place WITHOUT, you still bring them in with (if you have a stroller, leave the stroller out). Stroller stolen; pain in the arse. Kid stolen; heart ripped out.
If there isn't space to sit and have them stand (who designs those places?!?) this is what you do:
Bring him in. Drop trow. Pick him up. Sit. Pee. Drip for a minute. Stand up and put him down. Wipe. Pull up your pants.
OCCASIONALLY, when he was "really" little (he was 36" and 37lbs at 24mo... so this is my qualification of "little") I'd toss him up on my shoulders in reeeally tight spaces where I needed to wipe while sitting down.
I always went for the big handicapped bathroom - my apologies to truly handicapped people out there but this is one instance where I feel it's OK (unlike the earlier question about handicapped parking - I would never do that). If someone needed it immediately, I would get out right away, but that never came up once.
I think when my son was about your son's age, I left him in the stroller. When he was a little older I remember him getting his hands all over everything (shudder!). Not much to be done for that but extreme hand-washing and carrying the anti-bacteria stuff in the purse.
I've always heard the dirtiest spot in a public bathroom is the floor, so keep that in mind!
At times I left my son strapped into the stroller outside the stall with the wheels RIGHT (almost under) the stall.
More often, I took him in with me and had him stand right in front of me.
(You can kind of lean forward to keep your modesty!)
Also, the family bathrooms in places are roomier if you can find & use those.
In cases like this, traveling alone with a child that age when I need to pee...and I know if they are going to crawl on the bathroom floor or touch everything in sight, I've taken the stall furthest away from the door, and just left it open with him in the stroller in the stall doorway. I'd rather have some other girl or woman catch a glimpse of me peeing than my kid putting his mouth on something in the restroom or crawling under the stall. The other women in there will totally understand!
I'm in the city a lot with my two bugs, 4 and 20 months and I can understand the hassle. My older one understands to stand still and touch NOTHING, my little one is impossible and strollers do not fit in most NYC bathrooms, so my solution....I wear a carrier, the Ergo baby, it takes some getting use to and you have to remember to tuck the strips in the back out of the way, but it works for me and it fits in my stroller underseat basket.
You manage. I often take DD to the handicapped stall in her stroller. If no one else is using it, I feel that this is acceptable, and that's where many stores put their changing table, too. Also, look around for family restrooms, which are bigger than average and usually a single toilet vs stalls. Some of them also have a seat on the wall for toddlers so you can strap him/her in while you use the restroom.
Now that my DD is old enough to comment, I have figured out how to be quick/discreet (you really don't want to know what small children comment on...loudly...). It works for us.
DD loves to wash her hands so sometimes I have to say her hands are clean enough but washing her hands hasn't been a problem. And you can always bring a few spare baby wipes.
I have also maneuvered an umbrella stroller in a small stall but that's annoying. Once the stall was so small that I hooked a foot in the foot rest and worked fast because I didn't want anybody to steal my child. But only because it was an empty restroom. When she was tiny, I held her on my lap or wore her in the bjorn.
When my son was that age, I just stuck him on my lap while I did my business. At 1, kids don't really see their moms' bodies as separate from their own, so I just shelved my modesty for a while. When he got a bit older, I had him come into the handicapped stall with me and sort of stuck my purse on my lap.
My children have gone in with me into every bathroom stall since they were born if I am alone. I will take the stroller into the handicap stall if possible to avoid the child being all over the place and touching things. I am quick to avoid making others wait for this precious stall. If it is unavailable I take them and have them stand(I usually have a small toy tucked in a purse to occupy their hands) and once again I am as quick as possible and we wash our hands completely to ensure a development of a habit of if you are in a bathroom you wash your hands when you are done. I would never leave my child "right outside the door" I don't trust anyone. They also at many places now have family restrooms where the whole family can go in and take care of business.
Yeah, it's hard and it sucks and you'll figure it out. We've all been there. ^_^
I waited for the last stall in the row and then put him in the stroller with the door open so that I could see him. The stroller doesn't fit in, but we could see eachother and he was not touching anything!
He's potty trained now, so it's a lot of "Don't touch anything! I will pick you up and put you on the potty!"
One brilliant thing I learned to do was to use the toilet while 'wearing' my son in a pack. Not ideal -- really, not by any means-- but when the stall was too small for the stroller, this was the best method for us. (I'm a privacy freak in public and the door has to be closed, or forget about it.)
This said, I also wore my son a lot, so if you want to do this, just pack a carrier in your stroller basket.
